by E A Price
“Freaking hell! This weather is awful. Never mind cats and dogs, it’s raining fucking elephants out there!”
Everyone tried not to laugh at Isis’ bedraggled state. Her long red hair was soaking and rat-tailing down her back while dribbles of black mascara ran down her cheeks. To the unmated males’ delights, her tank top was almost see-through, and her nipples were hard nubs, trying to poke through the material.
Isis saw Gunner and Erin and gave them a half scowl, half smile. “Welcome back.”
“Erin’s pregnant!” gushed Lucie.
Isis raised her eyebrows. “Seriously? Congrats, we’re all hoping the baby takes after Erin, right?”
There was a chorus of oh yeah, and a few people said definitely.
Gunner ignored them and focused on his unhappy mate. “I’m sorry, babe, I’ll be as quick as I can, I just need to go over to the Shelley Cemetery and look around. Apparently LLPD requested the SEA send someone over.”
Lucie elbowed Cutter in the stomach and inclined her head toward them. Gunner could easily have ordered any of his team to go in his place, but since they were off duty he wouldn’t be cruel. Cutter rolled his eyes and huffed. In spite of his wolf’s objections about wanting to spend the night with his own mate, Cutter would volunteer to go instead. Being mated to someone who was sweet and selfless was really hard sometimes!
Unexpectedly, he didn’t have to be nice. Someone else beat him to it.
“Oh stop with the big, sad eyes,” snapped Isis. “I’m already wet through, and since I’m the rookie member of the team, I’ll go.”
“You will?” asked Gunner in frank surprise.
“Sure, consider this my baby gift to you… because you won’t be getting anything else.”
“Thank you, Isis,” said Erin with feeling.
“Yeah, yeah, save your mushiness; I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Isis gave a wave of her manicured hand and stomped out the door, dripping water as she went. Erin snuggled against Gunner happily, and Cutter allowed Lucie to lead him away from the group. He brought her fingers up to his mouth and kissed her ring finger – right over the engagement ring he had given her earlier that day. Asking her to marry him was a no brainer and after he heard that Xander never actually bought her a ring… he just had to make sure she got the prettiest one imaginable.
“I was going to volunteer before Isis did, you know that, right?” he murmured.
“I know, and I’m proud of you.”
Cutter raised an eyebrow. “You are?”
“Of course, you’re my bad-ass wolf with a big heart of gold. I love you.”
He smirked. “Of course you do.”
Lucie bit her lip. “Actually I’m glad Isis volunteered; I thought that we could slip away and have a noisy night at home.”
“Not a quiet night?”
“Oh no, with the things I’m going to do to you, I doubt you’ll be able to stay quiet for long.”
Her fingers ran along the neckline of her shirt, and she pulled it down slightly, giving him a peek at the lacy, red concoction currently lucky enough to cradle her two perfect breasts. Was it wrong to be jealous of a bra?
Cutter groaned. “Pretty,” he choked out as his brain was suddenly deprived of an awful lot of blood.
“You should see the matching shorts,” she teased. “All for you.”
“For me?” he gulped.
She bit her lip and fluttered her eyelashes. “For your paws only.”
She rubbed her breasts against his chest, and he let out a lusty growl. “Fuck, what are we waiting for?”
Without a backward glance at their friends, Cutter grabbed her hand and dragged her giggling frame out of the bar. And when she didn’t move quickly enough, he simply picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, which only made her giggle harder.
In his defense, he had a lot of lost time to make up for. He allowed his fears to control him and spent a whole year running from her, and now he needed to make it up to her.
Now she was his, forever, and he never intended to let her go.
Mine.
*
Isis growled as her four-inch heels sank into the wet, muddy grass. Probably not the best footwear for hauling ass around a cemetery but, hey, they made her legs look amazing. Plus, she really hadn’t been intending to do this when she dressed that morning. Stupid LLPD – couldn’t they handle anything on their own?
She slapped her torch against her palm as the batteries spluttered and died. “Piece of fucking junk.”
Terrific. Alone, in the dark, in the middle of a graveyard. Yep, it was the start of every bad horror movie she used to love - she’d been a total addict when she was a teenager. Good job she was a kick-ass tigress, or she might be a little creeped out at that moment.
And where the fuck were the LLPD? Wasn’t this their party?
Her tiger let out a wary yowl as she heard a twig snap to her left. Why was there always a random twig for the bad guy to step on and spook the heroine?
Isis rested her hand on her gun. Her first choice would be to shift and let Ms. Kitty – that’s what she called her tiger – loose. But humans had an unfortunate habit of screaming and wetting their pants whenever she let her frisky feline loose. And they called her a pussy! If any of the idiot LLPD were stomping around, she didn’t want to give them a heart attack accidentally.
She couldn’t hear any other strange noises, but the wind was starting to whip up something fierce. So much for the glorious Los Lobos nights. She scented the air and almost gagged at the smell of rotting flesh. What the crap? Okay, yeah, it was a cemetery – but the bodies were in the ground right? Oh, it was that kind of horror movie. Well if it came with Rick Grimes from the TV show, she’d be okay with that.
Isis was considering cutting her losses and just turning round. She’d never admit it to her friends, or her mother – who had an unhealthy interest in her daughter’s sex life – but a nice, warm bath beckoned. And after that, she planned to lay in her bed, eating cookie dough, catching up on Elementary and snuggling with her cats Minion, Lucifer and Brimstone. What? They’re pretty names.
It wasn’t to be, however. With barely a ‘what the fuck,’ a mighty push from behind promptly had her toppling into a freshly dug grave. She face-planted onto something squidgy, and with a yelp that was hardly befitting of a tigress, she realized she had landed on a dead body. A fairly fresh dead body, and one that had just been divested of his arms.
“Gross!” she snarled as her tiger snapped her jaws.
Even worse, someone must have witnessed her less than elegant belly flop into the grave, as footsteps neared. Unless it was the one who pushed her – in which case she was all for round two – she just wanted them to go away.
Isis twisted round, mindful of where she was putting her hands. A light shone directly into her eyes and she growled.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” The deep, chocolate voice made her pause and had her tiger purring like a kitten. “Here, take my hand?”
And, for the first time in her thirty-year-long, man-eating life, Isis simpered and even swooned a little as she reached for the strong, masculine hand.
To be continued…
Hello!
Thank you for reading!
If you have enjoyed this and would be interested in reading more, please do sign up for my newsletter from my website: http://elizabethannprice.wix.com/eapricenovellas
The site includes info on previous novellas already available, those planned for the future, as well as the one I’m working on right now. So please, take a look!
Best wishes
Elizabeth
Hello!
Thank you for reading!
If you have enjoyed this and would be interested in reading more, please do sign up for my newsletter from my website: http://elizabethannprice.wix.com/eapricenovellas
The site includes info on previous novellas already available, those planned for the future, as well as the one I’m working on right
now. So please, take a look!
Best wishes
Elizabeth